Chester & Wirral League

Newton Athletic resumed their pursuit of Chester & Wirral League Queensferry Sports Premier Division leaders Birkenhead Town with a 5-3 win at Ellesmere Port Town Reserves.

Ben Woodman hit a hat-trick and Mark Richards and Dan Christian also found the net as second-placed Newton edged an entertaining encounter with their lowly opponents, for whom Luke Williams, Jordan Howley and Jack Walker replied.

Birkenhead (Kevin Oates, Mike Parnell, Ryan Atherton, Wade Sword) maintained their seven-point lead at the top with a 4-0 victory over Kelsall at Dog Lane.

Fifth-placed Christleton Celtic continued their fantastic form with a 2-1 triumph at third-placed Shaftesbury Youth (Ryan Griffiths) given to them by Cal Bratley and Ben Gregory.

Chester & Wirral League Division One side Eastham Athletic

Chester Nomads 3rds looked to be heading for their third win of the campaign after Liam O’Rourke and Mark Rennie fired them into a three-goal lead at Lodge Bar.

But, with only 15 minutes left on the clock, fourth-placed Lodge staged a tremendous fightback to run out 4-3 winners with strikes from Joe Yates, James McIntosh, Jack D’Arcy and Josh Fennell.

Blacon Youth are through to the third round of the Roodee Web Designs Tom Gerraghty Memorial Trophy after a tight 2-0 success over their own reserves at Cairns Crescent.

Lee McElmeel and Aaron Stokoe were the scorers.

AFC Essar (Simon Whelan, Jamie Johnson, Mark Thompson, Mark Hughes) pulled five points clear at the top of Olympic Trophies Division One after they won 4-1 at Eastham Athletic (Dan Owen) and Cestrian Alex had to settle for a 2-2 draw at FC UBER.

The prolific Adie Gough bagged a brace for second-placed Alex with Luke Chard and Jordan Jones netting for UBER.

Kevin McGovern heads in the winner for Clubbies at home to Elton Athletic

Third-placed Franklyn’s (Ryan Wardle, Colin Singleton) suffered only their second defeat of the season, losing 3-2 at home to fifth-placed New Ferry Rangers (Luke Cassidy, Sean Hyland, Jason Voss), while Neston Nomads 3rds won 8-2 at home to Whitby Athletic.

Chester Argyle (Tim Ashbrook, Robbie Foster) picked up a good point at home to third-placed Princes Villa, drawing 2-2.

Hat-trick hero Joe Williams, Danny Evans and super-sub Spencer Rogers were on the mark for Upton JFC in their 6-0 success at home to Elton Rigger. Crossway (Jason Day 2, Tom Heard, OG) won 4-1 at Upton Rangers.

The Chester & Wirral League is accepting applications from new teams for the 2017-18 season. If you would like information on the league’s open age, vets or Friday night floodlit leagues email Paul Graham at pgraham114@aol.com.

Chester & District Sunday League

Harley Bennion led the way for Waggon with four goals with Joe and James Henry, Kieran Ball, Brook Goodwin and Matty Mackin all bagging two apiece.

Table-topping Westminster ran riot in the second half as they won 7-0 at home to St Theresa’s.

A Billy Nixon goal was all that separated the sides at the break.

But there was only one team in it after the restart with Carl Ngiam (2), Chris Yew (2), Lee Youds and Carl Frost netting for Westminster.

FC Hickorys (Sam Carr 2, Dean Ennion 2, Jack Gittins) remain two points further back in second after their 5-2 victory at home to Upton Youth Centre (Sion Williams 2).

AFC Tattenhall won their village derby 4-2 at home to Waverton in Section B.

Waverton took a deserved lead through Tom Walsh and, after Collen Mutete equalised on a breakaway, they went back in front when Josh Leech made the most of an error from Tattenhall’s stand-in goalkeeper.

But Mutete restored parity for the second time with the goal of the game, beating four players before finishing with aplomb.

And that paved the way for Aaron Gray to notch either side of half-time to hand Tattenhall the points and the bragging rights.

Chester & District Sunday League outfit FC Blacon

Chaney Lloyd took his tally for the term up to 22 with a brace in The Cat’s 4-0 win at home to Vauxhall SC.

James Eaton and Steve Duncan opened and completed the scoring for second-placed Cat.

Holdi gave Axis United a real run for their money in the Cheshire Sports League Cup.

Section A Axis eventually ran out 3-2 winners thanks to two goals from Tim Ashbrook and one from Mark Francis.

But Section B Holdi twice equalised through Mike Tomlinson and Gary Flynn and they would have taken the second-round tie to extra-time had it not been for an 85th-minute penalty save from Jake Jones.

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Not least because it was achieved with a threadbare squad and without captain Chris Coughlin, who came off injured early on.

Upton will look to return to winning ways when they travel to second-placed Mossley Hill Athletic this Saturday.

Chester Nomads and Helsby, who were not in action at the weekend, travel to table-topping Rainhill Town and host Heswall respectively.

Chester Nomads Reserves, meanwhile, ran out 3-0 winners at home to City of Liverpool Reserves in Division Three last Saturday.

Charlie Mann (2) and Michele Apollonio did the damage.

Sam Spidgeon was on target for Upton AA Reserves in their 1-1 home draw with Cammell Laird 1907 Development.

Helsby Reserves lost 2-0 at home to leaders Rainhill Town Reserves.

Welsh Premier League

Airbus UK Broughton’s Welsh Premier League home clash with Bala Town on Saturday was called off 25 minutes before kick-off.

One of the two retractable floodlights at the runway end of the ground failed to elevate, despite the frantic efforts of technicians using an emergency generator, and referee Bryn Markham Jones decided that, for health and safety reasons, the game should be postponed.

The fixture has been rearranged for this coming Tuesday (7.45pm).

But first up for Airbus is a trip to Bangor City on Saturday (2.30pm).